Betty LaVette performs "Salt of the Earth" on Letterman:

What a great interpretation of the song. I love her voice. Not to crap on Lisa - but i'd love to hear her do b/u on Gimme Shelter - that would be killer.

Wasn't looking too good, but I was feeling real well.

ok, i'll crap on lisa, then, if you don't mind. bettye is an amazing singer; lisa is a wannabe....

i watched this last night on letterman ,and i thought she did a great job.

She has a great voice, but I don't appreciate her taking liberties with the lyrics.

The arrangement sucked.

Excellent version!

Though I did think she was about to break into "Midnight Train to Georgia"!

I like it!

a really very good version I have no idea who is she, though. changes in the lyrics were wrong, though... ^^

and one more thing - the title says "Betty LaVette in Late Show..." - shouldn't it be "on"? I'm not a native speaker! just curious.

Yes - it should be "on the Late Show" rather than "in" - so nice catch!

Wasn't looking too good, but I was feeling real well.

saw her open for Peter Wolf. Problem was she stayed on WAY too long and is a one-tri k-pony. Plus Salt of The earth with her new lyrics was a joke.

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StonesTod
ok, i'll crap on lisa, then, if you don't mind. bettye is an amazing singer; lisa is a wannabe....

word. fire lisa and hire bettye plz.

Thank you for posting, that was excellent. I wasn't bothered by a few lyric/arrangement changes.

If I wanted the stones version, I could pull out one of the 8 variations I have of it already on disc.

great choice Natlanta ........

Betty's - Let Me Down Easy from 1965 ......Stunning Stuff ....



ROCKMAN

New CD is called "Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook". Some peculiar choices, but there's an incredible version of "Love Reign O'er Me".

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mickscarey
saw her open for Peter Wolf. Problem was she stayed on WAY too long and is a one-tri k-pony. Plus Salt of The earth with her new lyrics was a joke.

I know what you mean. I saw her open for the Neville Brothers and at first, she sounded great, but after a few songs, she was boring....and she just went on forever..

What a voice, beautiful. I don't understand the negative comments here.

I swear, people here have the musical imagination of a gnat.......

I watched it last night and hate to admit I smirked when I heard her change the lyrics to something about HIV, instead of polio.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-25 07:28 by akgameboy.

She did a very nice interpretation. I wouldn't expect her to do a karaoke copy of the original. What would be the point of that? The audience certainly seemed to like it. There are some Stones songs that are so original they almost have to be performed by other artists to be fully appreciated. Salt of the Earth is one of them.

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batcave
I swear, people here have the musical imagination of a gnat.......

I don't know if you are referring to my post but I just wanted to clarify that I like her version of this and appreciate her voice....but I agree with mickscarey on seeing her live, she stayed on way too long.

...Bettye is fantastic and so is this version....I can't believe people would object to an artist taking artistic license. ....furthermore it's within keeping of The Stones progressive slant.

nice for a Sunday AM....

She's fine, I guess.

I've always seen this song as the Stones being languid detached and ironic -- not sentimental, earnest, or activist.

But I may have the musical imagination of a gnat

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swiss

I've always seen this song as the Stones being languid detached and ironic -- not sentimental, earnest, or activist.

There's always a certain amount of perceived insincerity any time the Stones try to relate to the common man. In this case, I think it may have more to do with the insincerity of their Rock And Roll Circus performance of this song, and with what we THINK we know about them, i.e., we KNOW they don't really mean a word of it. But unlike, say, Frank Sinatra, who regardless of whether or not the listener knows anything about him, still SOUNDS like he doesn't mean a word he's singing, you could play the Stones original version of SOTE to someone who knew NOTHING about the Stones, and they wouldn't be able to find anything in the performance to cause them to doubt Mick's sincererity.

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tatters
But unlike, say, Frank Sinatra, who regardless of whether or not the listener knows anything about him, still SOUNDS like he doesn't mean a word he's singing, you could play the Stones original version of SOTE to someone who knew NOTHING about the Stones, and they wouldn't be able to find anything in the performance to cause them to doubt Mick's sincererity.

there are so many negative constructions in this sentence, I honestly can't follow your point... can you rephrase?

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tatters

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swiss

I've always seen this song as the Stones being languid detached and ironic -- not sentimental, earnest, or activist.

There's always a certain amount of perceived insincerity any time the Stones try to relate to the common man. In this case, I think it may have more to do with the insincerity of their Rock And Roll Circus performance of this song, and with what we THINK we know about them, i.e., we KNOW they don't really mean a word of it. But unlike, say, Frank Sinatra, who regardless of whether or not the listener knows anything about him, still SOUNDS like he doesn't mean a word he's singing, you could play the Stones original version of SOTE to someone who knew NOTHING about the Stones, and they wouldn't be able to find anything in the performance to cause them to doubt Mick's sincererity.

hi tatters...That may be the case for some people, but I remember hearing Salt of the Earth first when I was around 10, and it didn't sound sincere even then. It's the drawling removed world-weary languid eye-rolly faux-gawd-help-us tone to Mick's voice. Perhaps I heard it that way because I grew up in a wealthy area where some people (adults) also had that sort of affectation/tone when referring to charity toward "the lowly of birth." A combo of condescension, sentimentality, hauteur, disdain, and smugness. I also heard the chorus (and still do) as making the song not only ironic, but quite perverse.

I saw RnR Circus when I was in my 30s and don't recall it influencing my opinion one way or another.

As to "common man" songs--never thought of Stones' songs in that way til now - interesting!--I don't hear irony or insincerity in Street Fighting Man or No Expectations (or any of the other common man type songs from BB ), or Loving Cup or Tumblin Dice (arguably common man songs from Exile) also don't seem insincere. Maybe there are some other examples? However, another possibly insincere irony-laden song to me is We Love You.

- swiss



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2010-07-06 08:12 by swiss.

I think betty LaVette's interpretation of Salt Of The Earth was great to hear, thanks for posting it Tippytoe